Military archbishop denounces ‘public spectacle’ of Hasan execution, obliges Catholic recusal

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — Just hours after his audience with Pope Leo XIV, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services issued a strong and lengthy statement Oct. 12 against the planned livestreamed execution by firing squad of Ford Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan, calling it a “public spectacle of barbarically killing our adversaries.”

In his statement, Archbishop Broglio, former president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and head of the military archdiocese since 2008, called upon “all men and women of good will to ask that this decision be reconsidered,” and encouraged any Catholics involved to disassociate with the proceedings.

“As I would in the case of a procured abortion, I oblige any Catholics assigned to the firing squad to request to be excused from this action contrary to the teaching of the Church,” Archbishop Broglio said.

As a U.S. military base, Fort Hood is under the pastoral jurisdiction of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA.

President Donald Trump recently approved the execution by firing squad of Hasan, the former U.S. Army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in a mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Oct. 8 in an interview with the pro-Trump TV outlet Real America’s Voice News that the execution would take place at Fort Hood on Dec. 3, and that it would be made public.

“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public,” said Hegseth, who uses the moniker “secretary of war” since Trump signed an executive order last year adding the “Department of War” as a secondary, ceremonial title for the Department of Defense.

In his statement, Archbishop Broglio — who emphasized that he “had the sad duty of presiding and preaching at the funeral of Michael Grant Cahill, the only civilian killed in that attack” — renewed his “heartfelt sympathy” to relatives of the Fort Hood attack victims. He said Hasan’s attack “disregarded the dignity of the human person.” But on the cusp of this public execution, he said, “the dignity of the human person is again at stake.”

Archbishop Broglio also posed significant questions that appeared to read as an examination of conscience:

— “Do we really want to imitate the terrorists of this world and make a public spectacle of barbarically killing our adversaries?

— “The crime committed by Nidal Malik Hasan was heinous, but does exposing the public to his execution serve any purpose?

— “Has the potential moral injury, which the members of the firing squad might experience, been considered?

— “Will the exposure of a live-stream to the young and impressionable during the 250th anniversary year of our independence be able to be repaired? The US military generally enjoys a good reputation in the world. Is there really a value to throwing them in the same boat with terrorists by broadcasting the image of the execution of a man in a wheel chair to the whole world?

— “Does this decision reflect the dignity of the human person?”

Archbishop Broglio called it his “duty” to “express my disapproval of what is proposed regarding the execution of the terrorist Hasan in the Archdiocese entrusted to my spiritual care to be done by those for whose salvation I have been constituted as the Archbishop for the Military Services, USA.”

The Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, was established as an independent archdiocese by Pope St. John Paul II in 1985 as the only Catholic jurisdiction responsible for endorsing and granting faculties for priests to serve as chaplains in the U.S. military and VA Medical Centers. Its priests serve at more than 220 U.S. military installations in 29 countries around the world.

If carried out, Hasan’s execution would mark the first time U.S. officials livestreamed an execution to the public. Some legal analysts noted that appeals and other legal processes could delay Hasan’s execution beyond Dec. 3.

The last public execution in the U.S. took place in Missouri in 1937, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

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